1. Background to British Politics: Lecture 3 Dr Robert Saunders: Developing a Democracy

2. The Making of Modern Democracy Before (1830)After (2014)

3. Legal Changes Reform Acts: 1832: The ‘Great’ Reform Act Reforms the constituency system and extends the franchise to middle class voters 1867: The Second Reform Act Extends the vote to working men in towns 1884/5: The Third Reform Act Extends the vote to working men in counties 1918: The Fourth Reform Act Establishes universal suffrage for men and enfranchises most women over 30 1928: The Fifth Reform Act Equalises the voting qualification for men and women, enfranchising almost everyone over the age of 21 Other Reforms: 1872: Secret Ballot Act: Introduces secret voting 1883: Corrupt Practices Act: First effective safeguards against bribery and corruption 1911 Parliament Act: Abolishes the House of Lords veto 1911 Payment of MPs

4. The Electoral System Before 1832

5. POPULATION: 0MPs: 2 ‘Rotten boroughs’: Old Sarum

6. Unequal Constituencies (c. 1830) Liverpool: population 200,000St Germans: population 672 2 MPs2MPs

7. Reformers but not Democrats Lord John Russell: Democracy is ‘the grave of all temperate liberty and the parent of tyranny and licence’ Benjamin Disraeli: ‘We do not live – and I trust it will never be our fate to live – under a democracy’ John Bright: ‘I do not pretend myself to be a Democrat; I never accepted that title, and those who knew me and spoke honestly of me never applied it to me’

8. Outdated: Democracy in the Ancient World

9. Unstable: Democracy and Revolution The French RevolutionThe US Civil War

10. Unrepresentative: Democracy as Class Government ‘Democracy’ = rule of the ‘demos’; the mob, or the poor ‘Aristocracy’ = rule of the ‘aristos’: the elite, or ‘the best’ ‘Mixed constitution’: one that represents all classes and interests, giving exclusive power to no single group

11. Drivers of Democracy Social Change ‘No political institutions ever devised by the ingenuity of man, have been so democratic in their tendency as the steam-engine with all its manifold appliances. Railroads, the penny-post, the electric telegraph, have all lent assistance to develop the same democratic element’ (Fraser’s Magazine, 1849). Party Change Growth of mass membership parties, mobilising voters throughout the electoral cycle.

12. The ‘Flexible’ Constitution ‘The history of England is emphatically the history of progress’; a tale of ‘constant change in the institutions of a great society’ Thomas Macaulay, 1848

13. Adding new cohorts to the electorate 1832:Gives MPs to the great industrial towns and cities, like Manchester and Birmingham. Enfranchises more of the industrial middle class 1867:Aims to enfranchise the educated, respectable and independent working class in towns 1884:Aimed at the agricultural labourers and rural working class 1918:Enfranchisement of married or older women

14. The Role of Popular Protest Paul Foot, The Vote (2005) ‘There was never any major concession on reform without some sign that people would fight for it. The concessions were not voluntary. They were not inspired by the ingenuity, generosity or democratic spirit of the politicians. Each one of them was wrung out of Commons and Lords by mass agitation and mass action’

15. ‘The Second Reform…zzzzz’

16. 1885 onwards: a partial democracy? Creation of national party organisations, to mobilise the electorate National Union of Conservative Associations (1867) National Liberal Federation (1877) Parties operating in the constituencies throughout the electoral cycle The rise of charismatic leaders, marketed as presidential figures to the public

17. Gladstone and Disraeli: Merchandise

20. Non-Democratic Elements MPs still unpaid 40% of adult men still excluded from the electorate All women still excluded from the electorate

21. The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage

24. March of the Women! Shout, shout, up with your song! Cry with the wind for the dawn is breaking; March, march, swing you along, Wide blows our banner and hope is waking. Song with its story, Dreams with their glory, Lo! they call, and glad is their word! Loud and louder it swells, Thunder of freedom, the voice of the Lord!

25. ‘Suffragists’‘Suffragettes’ Peaceful, constitutionalMilitant and sometimes violent Women’s Social and Political Union

30. War Posters, 1914-18

31. Unequal Constituencies (2010) Largest Constituencies 1. Isle of Wight (Con) - 109,902 2. East Ham (Lab) - 90,674 3.Manchester Central (Lab) - 90,110 4. North West Cambridgeshire (Con) - 88,851 5. Ilford South (Lab) - 87,765 Smallest Constituencies 1. Na h-Eileanan an Iar (SNP) - 21,780 2. Orkney and Shetland (LD) - 33,085 3. Arfon (PC) - 41,198 4. Aberconwy (Con) - 44,593 5. Dwyfor Meirionnydd (PC) - 45,364